Old + 1

Tuesday was my birthday and I thank everyone that sent me a birthday message. It was an overindulgent couple of days and afterward with my sister coming down from SF to celebrate our birthdays together. It also was a good excuse to get together will all of our families for multiple eating opportunities.

We started the celebrations a few days early as my sister flew down while jesse was in NY for work. At the moment that Joy and I picked her up from the airport we were off to eat. We started off by getting to Paulette in Beverly Hills for some French Macarons, because i wanted to know how they compared to the ones she had earlier in the month at the originator of the stuff in France. After enjoying a few with some coffee we headed just a little east for our dinner reservations at AOC.

For dinner Ben and Tiffany, my culinary appreciative friends joined us for a meal of three cheeses, bacon wrapped dates, corn cakes, duck confit, and a couple bottles of wine. Its still one of my favorite “special” places to have dinner, and i always leave happy. For dessert we skipped the menu and went to MILK for some ice cream, and cookies, and nina even picked up some corn ice cream to eat later.

Sunday it was family time and for lunch we met up with my parents, uncle, aunt and cousins. Jonathan and Janelle also came by and there were a bunch of kids to go along with lots of food. Dinner we met up with Marie and Kenji in Tustin for sushi and lots of it. You can say we over ordered because we had more than a few pieces left over, but i did get to try uni for the first time. Although i think it tastes good, its has a similar texture to avocado which if yo know me isn’t my favorite.

Monday it was our family tradition of dinner at Lawry’s. It was a very delicious meal of course, and Joy’s parents got to enjoy the restaurant and it was the first time i’ve seen fish come out of the kitchen since they don’t eat beef. Lets just say i racked up plenty of bonus points and will be expecting my gift certificates coming in the up coming months.

For the finale of my actual birthday I ended up going to BJs at the Foxhills mall in Culver City with Jonathan and the family. I really was just planning on getting a salad and calling it a year, but Jonathan had a $100 gift certificate so we said why not. I even got a mini birthday pazooki with a candle on top to round it all out.

It was definitely€ a good time with friends and family and i actually still need to meet up with my orange county friends for more food.